>> hello and welcome to global 3000, your weekly check on the global issues that affect us all. and here's what we have coming up for you today. empty nets -- why west africa's fish stocks are snatched away from the local populations. investing in nature -- how a millionaire couple is trying to do their share in patagonia. and precious drops -- how jordan is making the most of its fresh water resources. overfishing has become a major problem. greenpeace estimates that 3/4 of

the world's fish stocks have been affected. for tickets, europe has been trying to manage what is left. as a result, eu fishermen bring far less support than they can sell. if they catch turns out to be bigger than expected, they throw the excess back into the sea. that way, almost 1.3 million tons a perfectly edible fish from the north atlantic go to waste every year. at the same time, trawlers have joined other international fishing fleets off the coast of west africa. this form of fishing tourism comes at a huge cost to local communities. >> there's no need to fight for food. there should be plenty for everyone here off the coast of west africa. the atlantic ocean's chilly currents are teeming with fish. for centuries, they've been supplying wildlife and humans with a surfeit of food. but these days there are some uninvited guests at the feast.

plunderers who are greedy and insatiable. they've exhausted their own seas, over-exploiting their own waters and leaving them virtually empty of fish. >> in europe, in our own waters, roughly 88 percent of fish stocks are over-fished. that's more than can be replaced. in some fisheries we have fishing fleets that are 2-3 times the size that would allow for sustainable fishing. that's why we're literally shipping the problem to west africa. >> trawlers from all over the world have been converging on african waters for ten, twenty years, lagely unnoticed by the global community. this vast armada includes ships from japan, china, korea, russia and, first and foremost, europe.

it's made up of everything from rusty old wrecks to state of the art super trawlers from germany, all relentlessly trawling these foreign seas. >> the drift net is enormous. it's 200-300 meters long. its opening can be up to 50-90 meters so it can easily swallow an entire school of fish which ends up on deck. >> full fishing nets come at a price for the eu. it subsided the german ship, the helen mary, to the tune of 6 million euros, modernizing it to boost efficiency. the eu has invested some 240 million euros in its fleet, despite political efforts to reduce fleets and thereby halt the threatened collapse of fisheries. it's a battle that has since been lost.

>> the mere fact that you ask me this question is proof of our failure. we still have many problems, overfishing is the main one. not only in our own waters but everywhere. i feel somehow responsible for the fact we have gone to africa and taking their fish. now the locals have no fish left. >> those who suffer are the 1.5 million fishermen along the coast of west africa. they've been heading out to sea in their dugout canoes for centuries. fishing is a lifeline, not only to them but also to all the boat builders, fish sellers, and their families. no wonder that the arrival of every canoe turns their job into an increasingly bitter battle. the first to load a crate into the boat has secured the day's catch.

but these days the sea no longer has much to offer. >> there are no more fish. we used to go out at most ten kilometers, now we have to go out 80 or 100 kilometers and even that isn't enough to ensure a good catch. it's tough, very tough. >> the nets they cast far out at sea are 350 meters long. it can be dangerous work. these canoes aren't built for the open sea. it's also backbreaking work that takes its toll physically. and the catch is meager -- just a few measly fish. too little to feed a dozen fishermen and their families. the big catches go to the super trawlers, and that's completely legal. the eu has bought fishing

rights from a number of african states: according to the agreement, mauritania now receives 140 million euros a year. brussels pays in order to secure jobs but in actual fact it's private shipping companies that profit, catching over a billion euros of fish in these waters. environmental activists not only campaign against these legal fishing trawlers but also against the pirate fishermen illegally plundering the seas. the activists are a motley crew from every continent, and they risk a lot to name and shame the villains. needless to say, they are fighting back. the activists have branded this ship with the word plunderer, a glaring mark of shame for all to see.

who exactly is the culprit? the activists manage to pull down the mask. this particular villain comes from russia. >> illegal fishing is our biggest problem. 30 if not 50 percent of the fish that ends up on our plate is stolen. >> there are some one hundred floating fish factories off the coast of mauritania alone, each of them catching up to 300 tons of fish every day, both legally and illegally. it is becoming increasingly obvious that ecological collapse is looming. even the nets of these high-tech trawlers are no longer always full. >> as we saw in the report eu fisheries commissioner maria damanaki isn't particularly proud of europe's record off the coast of africa either. in a new agreement with mauretania she has included provisions bringing ships under the same level of scrutiny as in european waters -- so if

caught they can now be held to the same standards. >> south america's patagonia region stretches across argentina and chilly and boasts a rich landscape. a rich couple has been on an unusual shopping spree that has lasted a few decades. since the 1990's, they have purchased several mountains, valleys, even a few glaciers and volcano. it is their way of giving back the richest the have come across in life. kris' father worked in the oil industry. she now wants parts of the real patagonia to be turned into a national park. conservationists are bracing themselves for a tough struggle ahead. >> it's hard work and it takes several days for these young people to fill their sacks with grass seeds. they're volunteers from all over the world, here because they're idealistic and want to

help protect the environment. they're in the middle of a wilderness that will one day be the patagonia national park. with the grass seeds, they're restoring land devastated by over-use. it took kris tompkins and her colleagues barely ten years to return nature more or less to its former glory. a few years ago, these vast, unspoilt steppes were completely degraded. >> this land was subjected to extreme cattle farming for over one hundred years. now we're seeing guanacos and lamas again, and not just sheep. nothing wrong with sheep, but you don't want too many. now everything is once again the way it should be and i think that's good. >> kris tompkins is a former clothing company executive. but in 2004 she bought over 3630 square kilometers of land in southern chile from local cattle barons.

the project's goal is to leave nature and wildlife in the region of valle chacabuco to their own devices -- and ultimately, to hand the restored land back to the chilean government as a national park. this is the nerve center of the project. home to about 40 local families, it's a little village where the organizers hope the staff and their families can feel at home, even though they're a long way from the nearest town. there's even a school for the kids. kris lives with her husband douglas in a pretty majestic house slightly off the beaten track. but the couple rarely get to enjoy any time off. douglas is often away. over the last 20 years, the tompkins have created a total of eleven national parks in south america and douglas manages them.

he's no stranger to trouble. >> take a look at national parks all over the world. there is always trouble. because they often get in the way of economic development and political objectives. the same thing is happening here. >> we set out to see what he means. these spectacular, unspoilt landscapes seem to be untouched by civilization. but in fact they're at the heart of a bitter battle being waged between chile's politicians. the reason? the biggest rivers in the country touch the borders of kris tompkins' protected area, and the government has plans for them. the government and the electricity lobby have long been pushing for five new dams here in the region. producing electricity though hydropower would entail flooding large areas of grassland.

>> these major investment projects will help what is one of the poorest parts of chile. locals stand to benefit. but of course some people beg to differ and the tompkins are fighting for what they believe in. but the dams are in chile's best interests. >> but the electricity produced is earmarked primarily for transportation via power lines to mines some 2,300 kilometers away in northern chile. most people here oppose the project. >> it would be like taking a knife and slashing someone's face, stitching it back together and saying: so how do you feel? >> with international help, the environmental activists want to prevent this from happening. the tompkins play frequent host to influential visitors and various environmental protection organizations from all over the world. they need allies if they are going to succeed in their

conservationist aims. >> whether it's the arab spring, occupy wall street, environmental activism, people want a new way of thinking. there has got to be a better way. we are self-destructing. >> kris tompkins has already won over a number of locals. her staff includes arcilio sepulveda, who used to be a puma hunter. he still tracks pumas but these days with the help of satellite tags. his goal is to find out what sort of prey they're after because since the valle chacabuco has been a protected area, the puma population has started to grow. although arcilio's observations show that the pumas are preying mainly on guanacos, local farmers are complaining that they're losing sheep.

they blame the american woman and her conservation project, maintaining that the pumas are venturing out of the park and ravaging their sheep. they feel hard done by. because the electricity companies are also buying up land for their dams, leaving less room for their cattle. >> whenever things change, it's the poor people who suffer. like the pumas we will have to adapt and many of us will have to find new work. >> 62-year-old kris tompkins is undeterred - not even by the chilean constitutional court's decision to reject her lawsuit against the dam project. >> if we look at these places in one hundred years and they still look the same, then we have achieved something. it's definitely worth it.

>> kris tompkins is certainly helping protect nature with her project in valle chacabuco. but nonetheless, many in chilept her work. >> and now is your chance to get in touch with us and tell us what you think about globalization. at dw.de/english/global3000, you can fill in our global questionnaire and you could be on air soon. today we hear an unusual voice from northern china. >> i come from hebei province in northen china. my name is tong musheng and i am 62 years old.

i am a farmer and a delegate of the national people's congress. when children start families and pursue sensible careers. that makes me happy. i like to drink milk tea, and i like beef.

what does it mean? i don't understand. i would like to go the south, where the ocean is. >> from china we head to the middle east, one of the driest regions in the world. daily life in this political hotspot is already a struggle. and security experts have been warning for years that water scarcity heightens the potential for more conflicts.

the jordan river, described as a giant stream in literature from past times, has been reduced to a mere trickle in comparison. when it arrives in the dead sea its waters are highly polluted with sewage. now experts are hoping water treatment facilities can help to make the most of what is still available. a hotel and a mosque show that clever technology can make a real difference. >> the abu obaida mosque is about an hour away from amman. ritual washing before prayer is among the duties of the devout. but in jordan, clean water is in short supply. to prevent waste, there's a water recycling system next to the mosque.

tucked away below the gravel is a basin. it takes a few days before the water has been fully purified. then it's used to water the surrounding flora. the garden is a little slice of paradise amid an otherwise barren landscape. a trip through the country shows just how dry jordan is. even the tourist industry is affected by the water shortage. and the jordanian economy relies on tourism. the dead sea spa does its best to use water sparingly and makes efforts to recyle as much as possible. management doesn't want the guests' stay to be in any way impaired. wastewater from showers and sinks is collected and directed to a water treatment system much like the one at the mosque. german water expert dieter rothenberger oversaw the planning and installation of the

system three years ago. a system like this needs to be integrated into the original design of a building. it can't be added later. it allows 80 percent of waste water from the hotel rooms to be recycled. >> the guests' shower water comes in here, then flows through the pipes into the first tank where the initial purification takes place in the filter. this is followed by a series of further purification stages and the end result is clean water. >> the very last step in the process is sterilization of the water with ultraviolet light. it's re-used as service water to flush toilets. >> it's a very stable system. it's hardly ever broken down and the quality of the water is excellent. we actually produce more service water than we need for the toilets and the hotel is considering using it for other purposes too, such as the laundry and so on.

>> the hotel has chalked the system up as a big success, and one that saves it 20 thousand euros a year. general manager warwick janes explains that fresh water is delivered by truck every day, which is very expensive. >> we are reliant totally on what is tanked in every day. so that is why this system is paramount to us because of saving the amount of water. not only from an environmental point of view but the lack of water in the country and in the area. >> the problem is worsening all the time. the dead sea is receding. the water level has fallen by 25 meters in the last fifty years - primarily because the

river jordan, the dead sea's main source of water and once a mighty river, is now just a trickle. the reason is over-exploitation. its waters are used to irrigate the jordan valley, for example. date farmer awni al dasougi has been tilling the land here for 25 years. he and other farmers are allotted a certain amount of water by the authorities. >> the number of farmers here has increased over the years and water has become scarcer. there's also less rainfall so now we have a water shortage. >> 70% of available water in jordan is used for agriculture even though the sector contributes a small percentage to the national economy. by boosting farming of domestic

fruit and vegetables, the country hopes to reduce its dependency on imports. local agriculture wouldn't survive without a combination of fresh and recycled water, and this needs to be used sparingly. but how sustainable is the situation? >> the water shortage was especially acute this year. and according to meteorologists, rainfall is set to get even less. the problem is on everybody's lips in the capital amman - from the public, which relies on an allotted water supply, to the politicians. there's even a ministry responsible for nothing but water. its job is not only to seek technological solutions but also to determine how best jordan can share its water resources with its neighbors. many here believe israel takes more than its fair share. >> it is needed to identify the potential water resources there

and to agree for the shares of these water resources. this does not mean that the treaties or agreements with the neighboring countries are not more valid. it is valid. but there is some change in the ground and this should be reflected or understood by all the parties. >> from climate change to sharing resources, many factors influence the water question in jordan. the country needs to see the tourist industry expand, but more hotels mean more water is used. recycling projects alone can't solve the problem. dieter rothenberger says that the road ahead is fraught with challenges. >> jordan's two biggest rivers transport in one year the same amount of water transported by the rhine in just 17 hours. that goes to show how little water we're dealing with here and that we need more projects helping further efficient use of water resources.

>> new hotels are set to follow the example of the dead sea spa and recycle their water. if they don't, they're jeopardizing the future of the country's tourist sector. and not only do tourists need water. so does the population of jordan, and that's also growing. >> and that's all we have time for on this edition of global 3000. you can find out more on those and other stories on our website that's dw.de/english/global3000. thanks for watching and please join us again next week. from me, michaela küfner, and the team in berlin, bye bye. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--